Jonghyun has been staying at the school for almost a month now.

He got settled pretty quickly with Kibum, or Key as he likes to be called, and his best friends, Minho and Taemin; though Minho keeps sending him glares from time to time, and Jonghyun do not know if it is because he is doing something wrong, because he has for a fact figured out, that Minho can be quite overprotecting towards his friends. Jonghyun knows, because the first time they got to spend time on their own – once where Key and Taemin had just finished dance practice and had to shower and get dressed – Minho pulled him to the side with one of those familiar glares, and told him, with a stern voice that totally matched the way he was looking at him, that if he ever hurt Key in any way possible, he was personally going to beat the living out of him. Jonghyun had no idea why Minho was telling him that, but he had just swallowed the lump in his throat and promised Minho that he would never do anything to hurt Key.

And let us be realistic, why would he even? – Key was a nice guy and Jonghyun really cared for him, even though he has still not spoken even a single word to him – which actually kind of hurt Jonghyun, because he has on several occasions seen Key talking with Minho, but every time he has tried to close up on them, Key would just shut his mouth and look at him, as if nothing had happened.

So honestly, Jonghyun was not always sure if the younger and his friends were just playing around with him and his emotions, or if he actually could consider himself their fellow man. He usually went for the latter thought when he was unsure, however.  

In the evenings, when Jonghyun would be alone with Key, he would sometimes just try to talk; hoping that Key instinctively would answer him. For example when Key would be lying in his bed, which was placed on some kind of floating platform above his own bed, Jonghyun would be lying underneath and be staring up at the bottom of the platform, trying with sentences such as:

“Key?”

“Key, what are you doing?”

“Key, is the book good?”

“Key, what kind of homework did you have to do for the class tomorrow?”

And sometimes, when he was really tired, and could not think on anything rational to say:

“Key, I love you.”

“Key, would you marry me?”

Usually that would just earn him a groan in return, however.

And sometimes, when he was not in the mood, he would just be lying in his own bed and listen to music, to drown out the silence. Or else he would occasionally be phoning with Sekyung – but to be honest, he was not missing her as much, as he thought he would be, considering the fact that they usually did everything together before.

And sometimes, when he was really bored, and just in the need of talking:

“When I was younger, when my dad was still living with my mom, I once took this raw fish and stuffed it into the tailpipe of his car, because I did not want to him leave me. He was working in Daegu, you see, so usually when he would leave, he would sometimes be gone for a whole week, and as time went he would stay away from home more and more often—oh, that is true, you are from Daegu too, right?”   

Hoping that Key would have some kind of comment to whatever he was told, because Jonghyun knew that the younger was listening intensely, since he would sometimes ask him (on a piece of paper, in a other context) to tell him more about certain situations he had been talking about the day before. The latest example was that Key asked him to tell more about his family, and when Jonghyun told him that he had a mom and a sister, whom he loved and cared for really much, Key had just rolled his eyes and told him (on the paper of course) to tell him more about his father because obviously that was the interesting part – and that was the first time Jonghyun ever rejected him.  

To be honest, Jonghyun was starting to get really frustrated because of Key. Not that he did not enjoy spending time with him, telling him all kind of stories and writing him notes in class, if else the teachers would allow them/not notice them, just like it happened for them the first day. They had almost gotten a detention, but Jonghyun saved them, since he was new and such. Of course it was not only in class they wrote notes, it also happened outside class, and you can only start imagining how many pieces of papers there are lying all over their room, because they willingly communicated with each other; speaking or no speaking.

What truly bothered Jonghyun was that he was the kind of type who loved to talk with others, and he was not very font of the silence, so even though he really loved having Key as a roommate, and not was going to change him for anything in the world, he just really wished that the boy would open up his mouth and talk to him, like he talks to Minho.

-

It was not until one day, where Jonghyun kind of got enough of the younger boy’s silence.

And after everything that happened that specific day, he would wish that he had for once just kept his mouth shut.

“Key,” he sighed. “I am getting really tired of this game of yours.”

Of course there was no reply as always, and Jonghyun just laid there for a while, staring up at the bottom of the platform, considering what to say next.  

“It has been such a long time now. At first I thought you were just kidding around with me, but it has been such a long time now, and I really do not find it any kind of amusing anymore.”

A sound of moving sheets was heard, but besides that; nothing.

“So what is the big deal? Am a part of a game called ‘let us see how long time I can avoid talking to Jonghyun’ or do you have any reason and good explanation on everything? Because, I have been thinking hell of a lot about some myself, but I just cannot seem to figure anything out. Why would you actually close yourself out and decide not to talk to someone? I do not get it, so please tell me, Kibum; tell me what I am doing wrong since I deserve this silence treatment for you. I am getting sick and tired of it.”

This might be categorized under tired with nothing rational to say – to be honest it was just blabbering into empty air and Jonghyun did not actually realize how harsh he had sounded, until after it was too late.  

“I…I…I am… s…so…sorry, Jo…Jo…Jonghyun.” 

Oh hello! This chapter is relatively short and half a year belated. So I'm sorry about that... And yeah... I hope you enjoyed it anyway!